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This Irish monthly review of Catholic affairs is distinguished by its fidelity to the. teaching of t

30/10/2026

Computers are extraordinary – but there is no ghost in the machine

Metropolis, courtesy of Fritz Lang, 1927 As many people see it, there are three fundamental questions we have to answer about the AI phenomenon:What is AI and does it have something like what we call human consciousness?Secondly, what can we do with this massively powerful entity to promote the common good of the human race?Thirdly, and most critically, what are we doing with it, or might do with it to damage, pervert or destroy ourselves?...

Metropolis, courtesy of Fritz Lang, 1927 As many people see it, there are three fundamental questions we have to answer about the AI phenomenon:What is AI and does it have something like what we ca…

21/10/2026

A new post on Substack flagging a short essay up on Friday

Michael Kirke 15m I asked an AI whether it was conscious. It told me it didn’t know, and warned me against anyone, itself included, claiming more certainty than the evidence supports. That was the easy part. The harder question comes from the sociologist Sherry Turkle: what happens to us when we prefer talking to machines over talking to each other? Her verdict on the chatbot therapist is blunt: it “doesn’t care for you at all.” My new essay, “Alone Together: Computers, Consciousness and Community”, is up . I hope you find it interesting. See Friday's Substack post at [email protected]

Michael Kirke 15m I asked an AI whether it was conscious. It told me it didn’t know, and warned me against anyone, itself included, claiming more certainty than the evidence supports. That was the …

10/10/2026

Can you study your way to God?

What was it about 2025? After Easter that year, some of us wondered whether it would be remembered as the year the poisonous "awokening" began to lose its grip, and something older and quieter began to stir in its place. In 2026 the question has only grown louder. France, once the "eldest daughter of the Catholic Church" and lately the hardened exemplar of laïcité, is leading the way....

What was it about 2025? After Easter that year, some of us wondered whether it would be remembered as the year the poisonous “awokening” began to lose its grip, and something older and …

10/10/2026

Allen Tate and the Modern World

Allen Tate Allen Tate was a Southern American novelist, poet and literary critic, active in the first half of the 20th century. He was well known to the literary establishment of his time - Eliot, Auden, Hemingway and more. For a variety of reasons he is less well known today. There are suggestions that this might be because he converted to Catholicism....

Allen Tate Allen Tate was a Southern American novelist, poet and literary critic, active in the first half of the 20th century. He was well known to the literary establishment of his time & #8…

02/10/2026

As promised a few days ago, a new post on Michael's Substack -

Something has been stirring in France. This past Easter, 13,234 adults were baptised in French Catholic churches — three times the number in 2019. Teenage baptisms rose tenfold.

24/09/2026

Is The Practice of Reading Doomed?

Since this article was published on Michael Kirke's Substack several weeks ago , surveys and reports continue to frighten us about the decrees in reading in nearly all segments of our population. The latest, in the past few days reported that children's reading has decreased dramatically. A few days ago the Irish times reported that the percentage of children who said they never read…...

Since this article was published on Michael Kirke’s Substack several weeks ago , surveys and reports continue to frighten us about the decrees in reading in nearly all segments of our populat…

20/06/2026

Ending or Beginning – Choices We Make

Richard John Neuhaus, founder and editor of First Things magazine, once wrote that there are writers whom you read because you have been told you must read them. Having done so, he said that they then become part of your history, along with foreign countries you have visited or great music you have heard. It was all part of the never-ending process called learning, “and a very good thing it is.” But then, he added, there are writers who catch you up short....

Richard John Neuhaus, founder and editor of First Things magazine, once wrote that there are writers whom you read because you have been told you must read them. Having done so, he said t…

26/05/2026

Fr. Walter Macken

I lost a friend of more than six decades last week - although lost is the wrong word, for he has gone to a far less troubled world. He was also more than a friend - he was a guide, confidant and often even a confessor. His name was Fr. Walter Macken, son of the well-known Irish novelist and playwright, Walter Macken, whose hugely popular historical fiction were international bestsellers in the second half of the twentieth century and are still in print today....

I lost a friend of more than six decades last week – although lost is the wrong word, for he has gone to a far less troubled world. He was also more than a friend – he was a guide, conf…

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